Chapter 6 - THE FILE VANESSA COULDN’T DESTROY
By noon, I had a lawyer.
Not Dominic’s.
Not Caruso’s.
Mine.
Her name was Rebecca Sloan, an intellectual-property attorney Claire knew through a former client.
She listened for forty minutes without interrupting.
Then said:
“You have three separate problems.”
“Only three?”
She almost smiled.
“Copyright infringement.”
She held up one finger.
“Potential breach of fiduciary duties involving the trust.”
Second.
“And corporate ownership rights under Elena Caruso’s will.”
Third.
Then she looked at my cheek.
“And a marriage problem I’m not qualified to solve.”
“I think I solved that.”
“Good.”
We reviewed the USB.
Original Adobe files.
Metadata.
Email attachments sent to Dominic.
Photos of sketchbook pages.
Even videos of me drawing while Eli played beside my desk.
Timestamped.
Rebecca leaned back.
“Vanessa is in trouble.”
“How much trouble?”
“Enough that the bridal sale should stop immediately.”
“That could collapse Caruso.”
“Yes.”
I thought about thousands of employees.
Factories.
Pattern makers.
Sewing teams.
Retail staff.
People who had nothing to do with my marriage.
Dominic had used them as his justification.
I refused to use them as revenge.
“Can we freeze the disputed designs without killing the company?”
Rebecca studied me.
“Possibly.”
“How?”
“License negotiation.”
I laughed.
“You want me to license my stolen work back to them?”
“I want you to understand your leverage before deciding what justice looks like.”
That sentence mattered.
Leverage.
Not revenge.
Choice.
Something Dominic never gave me.
Then Julian arrived.
He looked exactly like I remembered from company holiday parties.
Thin.
Nervous.
Forties.
He carried a hard drive in a padded case.
“This is the archive mirror.”
Rebecca frowned.
“You copied corporate data?”
“I preserved evidence after Dominic ordered the design server cleaned.”
I looked at Dominic, who had come only because Rebecca requested his presence for part of the meeting.
“Ordered cleaned?”
His face tightened.
“Routine migration.”
Julian laughed.
“No.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Careful.”
Julian did not flinch.
“That tone is why everyone lied to you.”
Silence.
I almost liked him.
Julian continued.
“When I found Nora’s original files mixed into Vanessa’s working directories, I flagged them.”
“What happened?” Rebecca asked.
“Vanessa told me the designs were family property.”
“Why?”
“She said Nora created them during marriage.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“That does not automatically make them company property.”
“I know.”
Julian looked at Dominic.
“So did he.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“You don’t know what I knew.”
“I was in the room when corporate counsel told you.”
My stomach dropped.
“When?”
“Eighteen months ago.”
Exactly when Dominic admitted he found out.
Julian continued.
“Counsel said Nora likely retained rights unless she assigned them.”
I looked at Dominic.
“You had legal confirmation.”
“Yes.”
“And still let Vanessa use them.”
“Yes.”
No excuses.
Maybe he had finally run out.
Julian connected the hard drive.
Thousands of archived versions appeared.
Then one folder.
VM_PRIVATE.
Vanessa Moretti.
Inside were edited versions of my sketches.
Metadata stripped.
Dates changed.
Authorship fields rewritten.
Rebecca whispered:
“This is deliberate.”
Then Julian opened an email.
From Vanessa to an outside consultant.
Need the Caruso spouse clause neutralized before sale.
Consultant replied:
If contribution can’t be proven, no vesting.
My stomach turned.
They knew exactly what they were doing.
Then another email.
This one from Vanessa to someone identified only as DC.
I looked at Dominic.
His initials.
He went pale.
Rebecca opened it.
Vanessa:
Nora is asking about design again. Keep her away from the company until we close bridal.
DC:
Handle your department. I’ll handle my marriage.
The room went silent.
I stared at Dominic.
“When was this?”
Julian checked.
“Fourteen months ago.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
I felt something inside me finally detach.
Not anger.
Not grief.
The last excuse.
Then Rebecca opened the reply beneath it.
Vanessa:
Good. Because if she gets inside Caruso, Elena’s shares become hers.
May you like
Dominic had answered with one word.
I know.
